1/35 M24 Chaffee
This little scene portrays a Chaffee with its crew scouting for enemy activity on the outskirts of a German town during the late winter of 1945.
The kit used is the newish Bronco offering built largely out of the box. As is typical for Bronco the build is rather complex with many tiny subassemblies combining both styrene and photoetch. However, if you take your time and do some dry-fitting you will end up with an excellent representation of the M24.
The crew in the turret comes from the Tamiya M26 Pershing while the driver is made up from spare parts. The stowage is a mix of scratchbuilt items and stuff taken from the spares box.
For the base I used foamboard and paper stock to form the basic structures with a few commercial items added for various details. The tree was built from electrical wiring coated with Liquitex Ceramic Stucco. While not totally convincing I am still happy with how the tree turned out.
All in all this was a fun and rewarding project.
Anders... I do not build armor subjects but I always appreciate looking at armor subjects as it usually combines all the modeling elements; weathering, figure painting and diorama composition. I really like your Chaffee, and the figures in particular. The tree is not too bad as well.
Very nice Chaffee Anders! I love those little tanks. I've built the Italeri version and there are a few pics of it a few pages back. Yours is beautifully done sir!
Gary
Nice job on the tank Anders, I have to say though that I really like the base you put it on. Great job on the road, wall and tree. The setting helps bring out the tank and make the work you did on it stand out. Very nice.
Brilliant work, Anders. Your painting/weathering technique really makes the detail(s) "pop out". And the setting is the perfect finishing touch. I like it a lot.
An excellent opportunity for me to show how little I know about armour: I thought the Chaffee was a much later creation and that it was far too late to serve in WWII! I like it, tree included!
Regards
Magnus
What's your technique for getting a completely white background, Anders? The process really brings the viewer directly to your detail - even shadow(s) are practically non-existant. Again..exquisite detailing. Really nice work.
Thanks Craig!
I just now tried to upload a pic from my iPhone (sorry about the colors) showing my photo setup, hope it worked.
As you hopefully can see I have four lights. One from above and one each flanking the camera. David Parker (editor of AFV & AIR Modeller) suggested I should add a fourth light from the side (just visible to the right behind the screen) and it seems this light served well to reduce the shadows.
Other than that I have really no clue of what I am doing with the camera. I just use a white paper for background and shoot away using the highest f-stop available. 🙂
Exquisite work on that model, Anders.
Many thanks for the positive comments (especially regarding the base and tree). My apologies for the late response here.
Yes, Jack - I have always liked the armor side of modeling for how it manages to bring so many different aspects together in one single project.
Magnus, the Chaffee actually entered service just in time for a few vehicles to take part in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.
Thanks again to you all for taking the time to post a comment! 🙂